# Question on reading text files in Windows **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [February 2, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-on-reading-text-files-in-windows/159247 "2009-02-02T18:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigjimmyk3)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-on-reading-text-files-in-windows/159247/1 "2009-02-02T18:40:36Z")
I am running Ruby 1.86 on Windows, and having trouble reading in some text files. For some text files, if I do something simple like: myfile = File.open(“logfile.log”) contents = myfile.read() puts contents I get each character seperated by a space, such as: ”= = = V e r b o s e l o g g i n g s t a r t e d : 1 / 2 8 / 2 0 0 9 1 3 : 4 5 : 0 6 B u i l d t y p e : S H I P U N I C O D E If I bring up the file in even a bare-bones editor (such as VIM), I get the file as it normally is (without any extraneous spaces). Does anyone know why this would be, or how I can work around it? It’s causing issues as I am trying to write a script to search for a particular string of text, and obviously it isn’t found, even though it should be. Thanks, Jim ---
**Author:** ![bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigjimmyk3)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-on-reading-text-files-in-windows/159247/2 "2009-02-02T20:09:58Z")
2009/2/2 Jim K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > 0 0 9 > 1 3 : 4 5 : 0 6 B u i l d t y p e : S H I P U N I C O D E > > If I bring up the file in even a bare-bones editor (such as VIM), I > get the file as it normally is (without any extraneous spaces). Does > anyone know why this would be, or how I can work around it? It’s > causing issues as I am trying to write a script to search for a > particular string of text, and obviously it isn’t found, even though > it should be. The file is probably UTF-16 encoded and starts with a BOM. Try to convert the string to UTF-8, or switch to Ruby 1.9. Stefan ---
**Author:** ![bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigjimmyk3)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-on-reading-text-files-in-windows/159247/3 "2009-02-02T20:26:27Z")
2009/2/2 Stefan L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > > ”= = = V e r b o s e l o g g i n g s t a r t e d : 1 / 2 8 / 2 > > The file is probably UTF-16 encoded and starts with a BOM. > > Try to convert the string to UTF-8, or switch to Ruby 1.9. Sorry, I meant to say “Try to convert the string to UTF-8 WITH Iconv” Stefan ---
**Author:** ![bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigjimmyk3)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-on-reading-text-files-in-windows/159247/4 "2009-02-02T22:12:58Z")
Thanks…so if I upgraded to Ruby 1.9, would it convert it automatically? ---
**Author:** ![bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigjimmyk3)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-on-reading-text-files-in-windows/159247/5 "2009-02-02T22:45:53Z")
Thanks for the pointer! I actually ended up using the iconv module, and it worked like a charm. Incidentally, in case anyone else is curious about this, Windows .REG files get saved as UTF-16 by default. ---
**Author:** ![bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@bigjimmyk3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bigjimmyk3)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-on-reading-text-files-in-windows/159247/6 "2009-02-02T22:54:08Z")
2009/2/2 Jim K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > Thanks…so if I upgraded to Ruby 1.9, would it convert it > automatically? You’d have to tell it that you want to work with UTF-8 internally by putting this at the top of your application: ``` Encoding.default_internal = Encoding::UTF_8 ``` and then tell the read or open function that the file is UTF-16 encoded, e.g.: ``` content = File.read("logfile.log", encoding: "utf-16") ``` Though I don’t know how many gems already work for Ruby 1.9.1 on Windows. Stefan